DAY­TONA SPEED SE­CRETS

n The 23-inch-tall rear wing was part of the equa­tion that mit­i­gated the lift-in­duced high-speed con­trol is­sues and helped push the Day­tona race car to 200 mph in 1970. The wing it­self was painted black or white, while the tail stripe with the “DAY­TONA” let­ter­ing was a de­cal.

n The steel nose cone pro­vided a dra­matic re­duc­tion in aero lift, push­ing down the Day­tona’s co­ef­fi­cient of drag to a re­ported 0.29, which is bet­ter than most con­tem­po­rary ve­hi­cles. The re­tractable head­lamp hous­ings are the only wing-car parts shared with the Ply­mouth Su­per­bird.

n Plas­tic front fender scoops cov­ered holes de­signed to mimic those on race cars that Dodge said were for tire clear­ance. There is ev­i­dence they were ac­tu­ally an aero-en­hanc­ing aid that al­lowed un­der­body air to exit over the car rather than be forced un­der it. Fifty years later, cars such as the Ca­maro ZL1 em­ploy hood vents for the very same rea­son.